Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Washington DC, Dec 16, 2008 / 06:14 am (CNA).- Dignitas Personae, the new Vatican instruction on ethical issues in biotechnology was further explained by the U.S. bishops in a new “Question and Answer” document. Catholic bioethicist Father Tad Pacholczyk has also commented on the instruction, calling it a valuable “reference point” for bioethical controversies.

The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith on Friday released Dignitas Personae, which is subtitled “On Certain Bioethical Questions.” The result of six years of study and deliberation on the most recent developments in the field of bio-technology, it discusses the implications of technologies related to procreation.

It especially examines such issues in relation to the dignity of human life and the integrity of marriage.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Question and Answer document on Dignitas Personae explains that the document’s title means “the dignity of a person.”

“All the conclusions of the document are based on the inherent dignity of each and every human person, from conception to natural death, and the need for all technology and other human activity to respect that dignity,” the bishops’ Q and A states.

The bishops note that some topics discussed in the document are new, such as human cloning and embryo adoption.

“The child conceived in human procreation is a human person, equal in dignity with the parents. Therefore he or she deserves to be brought into being through an act of total and committed marital love between husband and wife.”

Replacing such an act with a procedure by a laboratory technician does not respect this “special dignity” of the human person, nor does using gametes from people outside the marriage, using another woman to bear a surrogate pregnancy, treating the child as an object of “quality control,” or otherwise mistreating the human being in embryo.more...